I-XII -- Setting the scene -- Polysemy and flexibility: introduction and overview -- Cognitive models of polysemy -- Polysemy: past and present -- Cognitive approaches -- Polysemy and conceptual blending -- Reconsidering prepositional polysemy networks: the case of over* -- Polysemy as flexible meaning: experiments with English get and Finnish pitää -- Metonymic polysemy and its place in meaning extension -- Synchrony/diachrony approaches -- Polysemy in derivational affixes -- The role of links and/or qualia in modifier-head constructions -- Polysemy and bleaching -- Polysemy in the lexicon and in discourse -- Psycholinguistic approaches -- Irony in conversation: salience, role, and context effects -- Young children's and adults' use of figurative language: how important are cultural and linguistic influences? -- Emerging patterns and evolving polysemies: the acquisition of get between four and ten years -- Computational approaches -- "I don't believe in word senses" -- Senses and texts -- Index